In the dispensing of intravenous solutions, it is conventional to support the reservoir from which such solution is dispensed on a vertically positioned rod and to support said rod through a suitable, often wheeled, base on a floor adjacent the means, as a bed or wheelchair, occupied by the patient. Where the means supporting the patient is relatively fixed, as a hospital bed, this works satisfactorily and has been standard procedure for many years. However, where the patient occupies a mobile device, such as a wheelchair, or a transport carrier such as the carrier used to transport to and from an operating room, the stand, often termed an I.V. stand, must be wheeled along with the mobile device, and this can become extremely inconvenient. Accordingly, the objects of the invention include:
1. To provide means for mounting at least the reservoir portion of an I.V. dispenser directly onto said mobile devices.
2. To provide means, as aforesaid, which will be effective without modification of the reservoir or of the rod supporting means to select the height above the patient occupied by the reservoir.
3. To provide means, as aforesaid, by which the I.V. reservoir and its supporting rod may be moved quickly and easily from the conventional base of the I.V. stand to a position on the mobile device without disconnecting the I.V. equipment from the patient, without requiring special tools and without requiring other than a very small increment of time.
4. To provide means, as aforesaid, which comprises a small, inexpensive and easily manufactured clip capable of quick attachment to the mobile device and which will receive the reservoir supporting rod of the I.V. equipment quickly, easily and rigidly.
5. To provide a clip, as aforesaid, which can be attached readily to a wide variety of mobile devices and which when so affixed will be rigid with respect thereto at least within the range of forces required for appropriate support of the I.V. equipment thereon.
6. To provide a clip, as aforesaid, which, while primarily designed and intended for application to mobile devices as above set forth, may be as desired applied to a wide variety of other patient support devices such as beds or chairs with the same characteristics and advantages as above set forth for mobile devices, providing only said further devices have T-shaped, L-shaped or similar intersections of tubular, or other elongated, material generally similar to those above referred to in connection with mobile devices.
7. To provide a clip, as aforesaid, which will be sufficiently inexpensive to manufacture that same can be applied to and left in place on all or most of the devices above mentioned without excessive expense.
8. To provide a clip, as aforesaid, which can be applied to said devices without modification of or damage to such devices and which if desired can be easily and quickly removed from such devices without leaving noticeable, if any, marks thereon.
Other objects and purposes of the invention will be apparent to persons acquainted with devices of this general type upon reading the following specification and inspection of the accompanying drawings.